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6.1.2015 Haaretz.Com
http://www.haaretz.com/misc/articleprintpage/manappealsconvictionformurderof13yearoldgirltoisraelsupremecourt.premium1.478205?traili… 1/1
Man appeals conviction for murder of 13yearold girl to Israel SupremeCourtLawyer says expert testimony casts doubt on evidence used to convict Roman Zadorov of 2006 killing of Ta'ir Rada.By Eli Ashkenazi 01:44 16.11.12 0
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Backed up by two new expert opinions, Roman Zadorov, the man convicted of murdering 13yearold Ta'ir Rada at her Katzrin school, Thursdayappealed his conviction to the Supreme Court.
Rada was found in the school bathroom with her throat cut on December 6, 2006. Zadorov, 34, had been doing construction work at the schoolon that day. He was arrested, confessed to and reenacted the murder, then promptly retracted his confession.
The appeal, filed by the Public Defender's Office, is based in part on two new expert opinions. One, by a former FBI expert on footprintcomparisons, William Bodziak, argues that not only can't the bloody footprints found on Rada's pants be identified as Zadorov's, but it isn't evenclear the bloodstains are footprints at all. Prosecution experts had said during the trial that the footprints were clearly identifiable as Zadorov's,since he was wearing a very unusual pair of shoes on the day of the murder that left distinctive marks.
The second, by Israeli forensics expert Dr. Maya Furman, argues that the knife marks on Rada's throat seem to indicate that she was killed with aserrated blade, and not an XActo knife as Zadorov said in his confession. Furman also said the seven bruises on Rada's head were made by sevenseparate blows, which again doesn't fit Zadorov's confession: He said he never hit her at all.
The appeal also asks the Supreme Court to order the trial court to hear testimony from a new witness, A., who approached the defense a fewmonths ago and claimed that the woman who was his girlfriend in December 2006 had told him she murdered Rada.
But police investigated A.'s statement at the time and concluded that it shouldn't be taken seriously, because he was waging a campaign ofvengeance against his exgirlfriend, with whom he had just broken up. Aside from trying to pin a murder rap on her, this campaign includedposting intimate pictures of her on the Internet. Police also found no independent evidence that would support A.'s accusation, and said thatparts of his story contradicted the evidence found at the crime scene. A. himself has also since been arrested for crimes of violence.
The appeal cites various contemporary media reports of the murder in an effort to show that many of the "incriminating" details in Zadorov'sconfession were public knowledge. Some of the other details he cited, the appeal notes, were just plain wrong, like his description of Rada'sclothes and the position of her body.
But in any case, the appeal argues, his confession should be inadmissible first because he made it only after police falsely told him Rada's bloodhad been found on his possessions and then convinced him he must have murdered her and forgotten it, and second because he was persuadedby a police informant planted in his cell that if he confessed, he would get off with a six to sevenyear sentence, compared to a life sentence if hedidn't.
Finally, the appeal argues that the trial court gave too little weight to the fact that a trail of bloody footprints, which everyone agrees weren'tZadorov's, led from Rada's body to the neighboring bathroom stall.
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